Spinal discs serve to cushion and stabilize the spine in addition to distributing stress and damping cyclic loads. The discs may become damaged due to injury or age and symptoms of a damaged disc may include severe pain, numbness or muscle weakness. Surgical intervention is often required to alleviate the symptoms of damaged discs. For example, fusion is one method of reducing the magnitude of the symptoms of damaged spinal discs. The primary goals of fusion procedures are to provide stability between the vertebrae on either side of the damaged disc and to promote natural fusion of those adjacent vertebrae. In order to intervene, the surgeon must access the spine through layers of body.